Raising gender awareness - my journey since IDS

15 February 2016

In September 2013, after I finished the
MA in Gender and Development at IDS, I came back to my country, Mexico. Being
back was great, although after some months in my hometown (Nuevo Leon) I felt a
bit desperate. Neither my family nor friends understood what my postgraduate
studies were about. They referred to my professional activities as:
"those things you do", "Elena works for women related
stuff".

Talking about gender

I tried, several times, to explain what
gender is, why it is important to raise gender awareness, wishing that after
explaining it they would understand what I do. Most of the conversations were in
vain. I realised people didn’t really want to know what gender is about. They
would rather block out everything I explained, because they said, “women and
men are already equal”, “there are no such thing as gender gaps”, etc. I had to
be creative to get people to understand gender.

I decided to focus my energy and
explanations on those who were into “other matters” that were somehow gender
related. For instance, autonomy, safety in public spaces, discrimination,
poverty, citizenship and economic empowerment. My sister and close friends told
me that it is difficult to understand and talk about gender because it is so
personal; but that people might relate through a self-awareness process about
their citizenship, violence, education, etc. I realised the key was to talk
about it without mentioning it. I wasn’t happy with doing that, but I found out
that people were more receptive, and eventually more willing to reflect and to
question some of the gender mandates they grew up with.

To keep those conversations growing I
started four projects. Three communitarian projects aiming to raise gender awareness
through life experiences, and an online course about gender called "Regias autónomas" (Autonomous
and outstanding women).

Autonomous and outstanding women

The objective of Regias autónomas is to sensitise stereotypes concerning gender
roles, encouraging women to take workshops in “male tasks” such as electrical
and carpentry. Here in my hometown "role obligations" are commonly
used as patriarchal bargains among couples. Workshops help to open up conversations
and to question gendered dynamics at home, school and workplace.

In the future, we plan to open
‘autonomous and outstanding men’ to offer workshops for men who want to learn
how to iron, do grocery shopping, etc. Currently men and women are welcome to
all workshops.

Regias Autonomas workshop poster

Women as decision makers

The next communitarian project I started
was the production of a documentary which was released on 29 January 2016
called "Women as decision makers". I worked on it with VMA (producing house) and Sandra
Monobe and it’s the result of a creative, therapeutic and thematic
alliance. In the documentary, we aim to start new conversations regarding
women's leaderships in all areas, especially but not exclusively, at grassroots
level. This project shows the experience of 21 communitarian leaders.
Unintentionally, it captures that violence is in one way or another present in
their lives. Regardless of violence, all of them have continued to succeed. The participants highlight that
alliances among gender-aware women, across ages, class, ethnicity,
sexualities and educational backgrounds, are needed to strength their
leaderships.

I have to say that the Participatory
Research Methods class I took at IDS really influenced me to do this project. I've
found visual content more effective to sensitise. So far, 3 enterprises,
political parties, several NGOs and universities have contacted us to screen
the documentary on their workplace to reflect about women’s leaderships, gender
awareness the importance of alliances among women.

Following the film, we are planning to
release an online series of 26 chapters (20-30 mins each). We filmed over 100
hours! For that we will be starting a crowdfunding campaign which will be promoted through facebook,
for every 2,300 USD we collect, a chapter will be released. There's so
much effort and heart in this project that we want to spread its message, and
also we want it to grow.

Developing a new app

Last, but not least. I have designed an
app to map women and men safe perceptions in public spaces. The objective is to
use the information gathered to provide the government with statistics and data
to show the importance of crosscutting gender in urban planning. Unfortunately,
I don’t have enough funds to develop it. Although most of my projects are for
civil society and are free or low-cost, my consultancy is not a NGO.

Widening
the conversation

Two years have passed since I finished
my master’s degree, and I can see that what I read and learnt during the MA programme
at IDS has enriched my understanding of gender issues greatly. Importantly, I
found out how to share and give knowledge a purpose. After these years I conclude
that although conversation among genderistas are needed to deepen and
exchange knowledge and experiences, the real challenge is to raise gender
awareness among those who know nothing about it. Creativity is a good way to
start those conversations and reflections.